Bacon Chilli Poppers!

Since I love eating so much I’ve been spending a lot of time watching the Food Network. Unfortunately, this usually just leaves me hungry so in an attempt to enrich my eating habits, I’ve started paying more attention, writing down the odd recipe and giving it a go.

Mexican restaurant Pancho’s is one of my favourite restaurants in Cape Town

, and thus, I attempted to make some chilli poppers with a twist – wrapped in bacon and baked opposed to deep fried philo pastry. Hopefully a “healthier” alternative. Thanks to Artie’s Party for the recipe…
INGREDIENTS

1 X Cream Cheese (I used Low Fat)

2 X Pack of Bacon

Jalapeno Chillies

Tooth Picks

Cut the jalapeno chillies under the stalk all the way down to the bass. Scrape out all the seeds (this is what make chillies even hotter) and fill with cream cheese. Use the stalk part to cover the hole at the top to keep the cheese from melting out. Wrap each chilli in 1 (or half) a piece of bacon.

Place chillies on a baking tray. I used a piece of tin foil and ‘Spray n Cook’ because cleaning baking trays are a complete pain (any excuse to reduce the quantity of dishes!).

Bake the chillies in the oven for 20 mins at 180, (15 minutes will probably do but I wasn’t sure how long they would take to get soft!). That’s it!

I recommend letting them cool before serving so that a) The cheese doesn’t burn you and b) The chillies don’t burn you! The chillies I used above were bought at Pick n Pay and they were HOT!

P.S I will definitely use feta cheese not cream cheese in the future as it didn’t really stand up to the heat of the chillies or smokiness of the bacon. Feta will make them REALLY pop! YUM!